All things books, all the time

Terry Pratchett has Died

I have to be honest. I don’t know anything about him. I couldn’t tell you a single book he wrote. I couldn’t even tell you the name of any series he wrote. Now I bet you’re wondering why I’d write about him if I know nothing about him. Well, because every time I opened WordPress yesterday I came across posts written about him. I’m talking dozens. And it would appear to me that he made a lasting impact on a great many people.

I’m not going to talk about his death. I’m not going to talk about some of his best books that have been mentioned countless times over the last 24 hours. I want you to do that. I want you to tell me about this man who is so beloved by so many. Tell me anything you want. Maybe you have a favorite book of his? Maybe you have a story about how one of his books helped you during a difficult time? Maybe you were lucky enough to meet him some time ago? Anything. I just want to know about the person who has now left the literary world at a loss.

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14 thoughts on “Terry Pratchett has Died”

I’ve been left feeling exactly the same as you appear to be with the news of this death… One thing’s for sure, he’s been a creator of something that will live on long past his time down here. And that means everything.

He was a brilliant comedian, and like most comedians had a lovely subversive humor that made you think. His ability for characterization was phenomenal, and his world was a warped mirror of our own. He touched everyone, from all different walks of life, and that was his greatest gift. He was able to write for most of his life, and lived how he wanted to. That’s the best any of us get, I think.

Terry Pratchett’s writing is witty, imaginative and completely immersive. Reading him is like walking onto a movie set… with a lot of outtakes and blooper, and plenty of laughs. He was a master at fantasy, creating real, tangible characters in stupidly unbelievable worlds. I mean really…. he created a world that is a giant disc, held up by four elephants, supported on the back of a giant space turtle… it’s a comedic parody of fantasy that’s better than most fantasy that takes itself seriously. He’s one of my biggest inspirations as a writer.

I broke out my copy of The Color of Magic (the first Discworld book) to re-read the day after he died. I still love it just as much now as I did in the late 80’s when I first read it. 🙂 And OMG I never realized this, but there are 40… seriously 40! Discworld books. I fell off reading them in the mid to late 90’s. I have some catching up to do!!

I especially love his ‘Nightwatch’ series and the ‘Wyrd Sisters’ one too. His books to me represented escapism, where I could read, laugh – even shed a tear. The books were like miniature portals, every Kidby cover was a potential door. It was not like he was some kind of great epic master of the Fantasy league – such as Tolkien, Le Guin et al. – but he wrote with such pathos, such humour that he was (in my estimation) more readable and somehow more believable too. I think the stats on his books and fan base will tell you that.

I haven’t been reading light fiction for a while because of my academic commitments, but I picked up Feet of Clay again recently and remembered just what it was I liked about Pratchett – ditto Thud! I am gutted – I can’t believe he has gone. I had been contemplating writing an article on his stuff for uni only recently.Think what it must be like to have such a talent that your work actually touched other people’s lives, via escapism into the immensely enjoyable books. Above all, he took the fantasy genre and satirised it – to me, it made it less po-faced and more accessible.

I don’t know that much about him. I’ve not read many of his books. But I was in a bad place mentally and hadn’t written anything for a long time. Writing keeps my emotions stable so not writing was very bad for me. Then I read good omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It made me fall in love with stories again and I started writing again.